Spicing up a Cleric/ Radiant Servant

[Tarmikos]

Ok, so, playing a level 5 cleric, lvl 8 Radiant Servant of Pelor. Worked fine in the group before, but new chars have come in, a wizard who stops up enemies in their tracks, and a barbarian(enough said). I'm finding my combat usefulness is on the wane, and I'm being relegated to party band-aid only. Is there any way to spice up my character, add some flavor? I'm not looking to minmax, or make myself better for combat than the others, but maybe some flavor/fun with the spells. Any suggestions?

EDIT: saw the subcategory for it now. Haven't been on in forever *facepalms* shoulda gone in 3.5

[KingoftheTrees]

What is your entire party made up of?

To tell the truth, I find myself in the same boat, I'm playing as a cleric 6/ Radiant Servant 10 and am usually delegated to the healbot even though there is much that the RSoP can do. Have you taken Zen Archery? You could be a ranged attacker. That aside, any spell with the Light descriptor is good. Radiant Assault is a personal favorite, as is Lucent Lance (both from Spell Compendium). If you're in a campaign that is undead or evil outsider heavy, try Celestial Brilliance (from Book of Exalted Deeds). There's a feat (I think from Player's Guide to Faerun) that adds some spells and lets you spontaneously cast any spell with the Light Descriptor or that has Light in the name.

Did you take the alternate class feature to spontaneously cast from the Healing domain?

[TroubleBrewing]

Relevant link is relevant. (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19871786/A_Players_Guide_to_Healing_%28And,_why_you_will_be _Just_Fine_without_a_Cleric_to_heal%29)

But seriously. It'll change your perspective on the role of the Cleric.

[Firechanter]

Orly? I played a Cleric / Radiant Servant before and he rawked. Even before DMM:Persist came live (at level 12) he was pretty much the most effective character in the group. By far the highest AC, so main tank. Not that enormous damage output, but not shabby either. Everyone liked being near me to get the benefits of my aura.

Though we didn't have a Wizard; primary melees would have been Druid and Ranger. We also had a second Cleric, who didn't go fight much, though.

[Toofey]

So in 3rd ed you're allowed to just buy magic items?

that seems silly, it also seems like they're really screwed up the value of healing magic by making too many options that are readily available to buy.

[Tarmikos]

What is your entire party made up of?

Did you take the alternate class feature to spontaneously cast from the Healing domain?

Entire party is a lvl 12 Wizard, and the monk just died, so not sure what he's coming back as. Either barbarian, swashbuckler/duelist, or paladin. Likely the barbarian or paladin. Had others, but they got busy with RL, hence the wizard being introduced, so things could still continue.

I did not take the alternate class feature, because at the time I wasn't planning on becoming a Radiant Servant, so I hadn't thought about it. Plus, not sure my DM would allow it.



Orly? I played a Cleric / Radiant Servant before and he rawked. Even before DMM:Persist came live (at level 12) he was pretty much the most effective character in the group. By far the highest AC, so main tank. Not that enormous damage output, but not shabby either. Everyone liked being near me to get the benefits of my aura.



My cleric/radiant servant had the most ac (past tense because haven't seen the monk's new char to know if i still do) and has a decent weapon. Before the wizard joined, I fought with a mix of melee attacks, spells, and in fight heals, with an occasional defensive spell before or during combat. With the wizard though, he uses control spells (cloudkill, acid fog, web, Evard's black tentacles, etc) They tend to be placed where he feels is optimized, even if they restrict melee combat. So I'm limited in combat, as I also can't use any spells that could interrupt his. Don't feel like arguing with him on that, but it does take away Flame Strike in some cases. So essentially, I sit there, let him do his casting, clean up what's left, if I can and there is anything, then proceed with healing. Dulling down the cleric quite a bit.

[Firechanter]

Heh, that Wizards outshine Mundanes, yes, that's well known, but that one can make a Cleric redundant, that's really hefty.

I'd say your DM needs to spawn more waves so the Wiz can't take care of them all by himself, but then again you just had a PC death... tricky.

[Metahuman1]

Talk too the wizards player. Tell him "Look I'm not having as much fun as I was. Can you tone it down a bit? Use a Wall of Force or a summoned monster too keep them form Melee/missile weaponing you to death after round one and then cast control spells? Take the casters out first and let me and the others worry about melee for the most part? Prepare out of combat spells? Basically let us get to do stuff again?"

If he refuses to bend, ask the DM to let you rebuild using PHB II rules, and turn into a DMM: Persist Monster.

[Cisturn]

There's two excellent spells for Radiant servants to use together. Triad Spell and Light of Venya. Both are from Spell Compendium. Triad Spell allows you to cast a level three spell or lower three times per day, instead of one. Light of Venya, once cast causes you to glow and lets you make two ranged touch attacks which deal 3d6 damage (4d6 for Radiant Servants) each. It also lasts until it's discharged which is nice. And you can send both rays in one round

If you cast Triad Spell on Light of Venya in the morning, you can have six rays of 4d6 ready to go at anytime. You can cast all six at once too dealing 24d6. Plus if your using it against the undead or anything weak to sunlight it deals twice as much damage damage. So 3d6 becomes 6d6 which become 9d6 because your a Radiant Servant. If you use all six rays on an enemy it can do up to 54d6 damage if you make all your ranged attacks.

[Cisturn]

There's two excellent spells for Radiant servants to use together. Triad Spell and Light of Venya. Both are from Spell Compendium. Triad Spell allows you to cast a level three spell or lower three times per day, instead of one. Light of Venya, once cast causes you to glow and lets you make two ranged touch attacks which deal 3d6 damage (4d6 for Radiant Servants) each. It also lasts until it's discharged which is nice. And you can send both rays in one round

If you cast Triad Spell on Light of Venya in the morning, you can have six rays of 4d6 ready to go at anytime. You can cast all six at once too dealing 24d6. Plus if your using it against the undead or anything weak to sunlight it deals twice as much damage damage. So 3d6 becomes 6d6 which become 9d6 because your a Radiant Servant. If you use all six rays on an enemy it can do up to 54d6 damage if you make all your ranged attacks.

[Keld Denar]

Pick up the Divine Defiance feat from the Fiendish Codex II. Now you can spend TU attempts to attempt to counterspell enemy casters as an immediate action. Keep a few Greater Dispel Magic's prepped and play the blue denial deck to contrast/compliment your party's black control deck (wizard) and red rage deck (barbarian).

[Havelock]

There's two excellent spells for Radiant servants to use together. Triad Spell and Light of Venya. Both are from Spell Compendium. Triad Spell allows you to cast a level three spell or lower three times per day, instead of one. Light of Venya, once cast causes you to glow and lets you make two ranged touch attacks which deal 3d6 damage (4d6 for Radiant Servants) each. It also lasts until it's discharged which is nice. And you can send both rays in one round

If you cast Triad Spell on Light of Venya in the morning, you can have six rays of 4d6 ready to go at anytime. You can cast all six at once too dealing 24d6. Plus if your using it against the undead or anything weak to sunlight it deals twice as much damage damage. So 3d6 becomes 6d6 which become 9d6 because your a Radiant Servant. If you use all six rays on an enemy it can do up to 54d6 damage if you make all your ranged attacks.

How does Radiant Servant get more damage out of that spell?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

There's two excellent spells for Radiant servants to use together. Triad Spell and Light of Venya. Both are from Spell Compendium. Triad Spell allows you to cast a level three spell or lower three times per day, instead of one. Light of Venya, once cast causes you to glow and lets you make two ranged touch attacks which deal 3d6 damage (4d6 for Radiant Servants) each. It also lasts until it's discharged which is nice. And you can send both rays in one round

If you cast Triad Spell on Light of Venya in the morning, you can have six rays of 4d6 ready to go at anytime. You can cast all six at once too dealing 24d6. Plus if your using it against the undead or anything weak to sunlight it deals twice as much damage damage. So 3d6 becomes 6d6 which become 9d6 because your a Radiant Servant. If you use all six rays on an enemy it can do up to 54d6 damage if you make all your ranged attacks.

Radiant Servant only empowers/maximizes healing spells which appear on the healing domain spell list and which are cast from his domain spell slots. The spells you named are not from the healing domain list, so they won't qualify for that.

The Radiance class feature Heightens light spells by one level and doubles their area of illumination, but neither of these things will have any effect at all on the spells you mentioned. Light of Venya has a set amount of damage it deals, which is not altered by spell level or caster level. A Radiant Servant casts that spell exactly like any other cleric would.